Popular Bonsai Styles

Popular Bonsai Trees Styles and Specimen

While Bonsai in general can be a very straightforward discipline when it comes to its guidelines and principles, this form of art sports an unexpected variety of styles in which gardeners choose how to shape their Bonsai. Here are the most representative ones.

Formal upright: A Bonsai with straight tapering trunk.

Informal upright: A Bonsai that grows mostly straight upwards but that shows slight curves.

 Raft: Bonsai with sinuous or slanting trunks.

Literati: A Bonsai which branches have been reduced to a minimum

 Cascade: Two of the most beautiful styles. Molded after trees that grow over cascades or at the sides of mountains. In these styles the tip of the Bonsai bends over and even falls below the base of the pot

Slanting: These are Bonsai with trunks that are straight, but that come out of the soil already at an angel

Forest: As its name states, this style encompasses many trees, which together should resemble a small forest.

Bonsai is a discipline, and those who start to learn about the cultures and principles behind it are bound to find themselves absorbed in a practice that carries centuries of tradition behind it and that in most cases, will change, shape and help the artist grow in even more drastic ways that the trees that he helps achieve their true potential.